


Timeless Children & Trauma

by cronaisawriter



Series: The Doctor Study [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Analysis, Canonical Child Abuse, Character Analysis, Character Study, Child Abuse, Childhood Trauma, Medical Abuse, Meta, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Spoilers for Episode: s12e10 The Timeless Children, developmental trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23035015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cronaisawriter/pseuds/cronaisawriter
Summary: An exploration of the abuse and trauma experienced by the Pre-One Doctors shown in The Timeless Children affects The Doctor and narrative.
Series: The Doctor Study [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1161416
Comments: 6
Kudos: 52





	Timeless Children & Trauma

**Author's Note:**

> CW: Child Abuse and Medical trauma 
> 
> Also posted on my Tumblr

Timeless Children & Trauma

An examination of the way the trauma experienced by Baby/Pre-1! Doctor affects The Doctor into the current incarnation.

I’ll split this into three main sections:

  1. The effects of the trauma generally on each doctor (1-13)
  2. Look at implicit memories specifically
  3. Relationship with trauma experienced as an adult



#  General Trauma Effects

In The Timeless Children, we are shown the doctor was separated from or abandoned by her own people which is an abandonment trauma and attachment trauma.

Then we have a parent in Tecteun who was emotionally abusive and subjected the child to medical trauma. After the first regeneration (a stressor on it’s without the knowledge beforehand) we then have extreme medical, physical, psychological and emotional abuse. 

These experiences would set the foundation for how The Doctor would be to view themselves, other people, relationships, love, trust, belief systems and how they would understand what is normal. 

Going forward we will look at the experience of having their mind wipe as similar to a combination of dissociative amnesia and gaslighting. The symptoms discussed are based on the known symptoms of DTD, PTSD and general effects of complex trauma. 

###  **Here is a breakdown of the developmental trauma effects are displayed by each Doctor:**

**First:**

  * Agitation 
  * Anxiety 
  * Attachment issues
  * Chronic Boredom
  * Feelings of being other or different 
  * Emotional dysregulation 
  * Executive dysfunction 
  * Fear of Abandonment 
  * Identity Issues
  * Intense and/or unhealthy relationships
  * Intrapersonal understanding deficit 
  * Phobias
  * Self-isolation
  * Struggles in education 



**Second:**

  * Anxiety 
  * Attachment Issues
  * Co-regulation dependency
  * Executive dysfunction
  * Dysregulation
  * Feelings of being other or different 
  * Purposeful (and unintentional) disregard for others opinions
  * Sensory integration issues 



**Three:**

  * Agitation
  * Chronic boredom
  * Dissociation
  * Emotional reactivity 
  * Interpersonal relational issues
  * Intrapersonal understanding deficit
  * Irritability 
  * Intense and/or unhealthy relationships



**Four:**

  * Attention Issues
  * Chronic Boredom 
  * Dissociation 
  * Executive Dysfunction 
  * Emotional Reactivity 
  * Feelings of being other or different 
  * Interpersonal relational issues
  * Intrapersonal understanding deficit 
  * Intense and/or unhealthy relationships
  * Impulsivity 



**Five:**

  * Adult C-PTSD (Those w/ this label experience other PTSD symptoms but are linked to other trauma’s)
  * Anxiety 
  * Depression 
  * Dissociation 
  * Emotional dysregulation 
  * Intense and/or unhealthy relationships
  * Interpersonal relational issues
  * Intrapersonal understanding deficit
  * Hopelessness 
  * Hyperarousal & Hypervigilance
  * Lack of impulse control and recklessness
  * Obsessive Thoughts



Six:

  * Adult C-PTSD 
  * Chronic boredom 
  * Emotional Reactivity 
  * Emotional dysregulation 
  * Fear of abandonment 
  * Hyperarousal & Hypervigilance
  * Identity issues 
  * Intense Anger
  * Interpersonal relational issues
  * Intrapersonal understanding deficit
  * Irritability
  * Self-regulation issues



**Seven:**

  * Adult C-PTSD 
  * Agency, locus of control and/or control issues
  * Anger 
  * Anxiety 
  * Chronic boredom 
  * Chronic loneliness
  * Compulsive behaviours
  * Emotional reactivity 
  * Emotional dysregulation 
  * Fear of abandonment 
  * Hyperarousal 
  * Identity issues 
  * Irritability
  * Interpersonal relational issues
  * Intrapersonal understanding deficit
  * Obsessive thoughts
  * Self-Isolation 
  * Trust issues



**Eight:**

  * Adult C-PTSD
  * Agency, locus of control and/or control issues
  * Agitation 
  * Anxiety 
  * Attention Issues
  * Attachment issues
  * Chronic boredom 
  * Chronic loneliness
  * Compulsive thoughts 
  * Compulsive behaviours 
  * Co-regulation dependency
  * Depression
  * Dissociation
  * Enmeshment & Co-dependency 


  * Emotional reactivity 
  * Emotional dysregulation 
  * Executive Dysfunction 
  * Fear of abandonment 
  * Hyperarousal & Hypervigilance
  * Identity issues 
  * Impulsivity 
  * Intense Anger
  * Intense and/or unhealthy relationships
  * Interpersonal relational issues
  * Intrapersonal understanding deficit
  * Irritability
  * Memory disruption 
  * Obsessive behaviours & thoughts
  * Panic Attacks 
  * Psychosis symptoms 
  * Recklessness
  * Risk-Seeking behaviours 
  * Self-Esteem Issues 
  * Self-Harm
  * Self-isolation 
  * Sensory-Integration Issues
  * Shame & Guilt 
  * Suicidality



**Nine:**

  * Adult C-PTSD
  * Agency, locus of control and/or control issues
  * Agitation 
  * Anxiety 
  * Attachment Issues
  * Chronic boredom 
  * Chronic loneliness
  * Depression
  * Enmeshment & Co-dependency 
  * Emotional reactivity 
  * Emotional dysregulation 
  * Fear of abandonment 
  * Hyperarousal & Hypervigilance
  * Identity issues 
  * Impulsivity 
  * Intense Anger
  * Intense and/or unhealthy relationships
  * Interpersonal relational issues
  * Intrapersonal understanding deficit
  * Irritability
  * Panic Attacks
  * Recklessness
  * Self-Esteem issues
  * Self-Isolation 
  * Shame & Guilt 
  * Trust Issues



**Ten:**

  * Adult C-PTSD 
  * Agency, locus of control and/or control issues
  * Agitation 
  * Anxiety 
  * Attachment issues 
  * Chronic Boredom 
  * Chronic Loneliness
  * Depression 
  * Dissociation 
  * Enmeshment & Co-dependency 
  * Emotional Dysregulation
  * Emotional Reactivity 
  * Fear of abandonment 
  * Hyperarousal & Hypervigilance
  * Identity issues 
  * Impulsivity 
  * Intense Anger
  * Intense and/or unhealthy relationships
  * Interpersonal relational issues
  * Intrapersonal understanding deficit
  * Irritability
  * Panic Attacks 
  * Recklessness
  * Self-Isolation 
  * Shame & Guilt 
  * Trust Issues 
  * Unstable Schemas 
  * Vacillating self-esteem



**Eleven:**

  * Adult C-PTSD
  * Agency, locus of control and/or control issues
  * Agitation 
  * Anxiety 
  * Attachment Issues
  * Chronic Boredom
  * Chronic Loneliness
  * Co-regulation dependency
  * Depression
  * Dissociation
  * Disordered Eating 
  * Enmeshment & or Co-dependency
  * Emotional Dysregulation
  * Emotional Reactivity 
  * Executive Dysfunction 
  * Fear of abandonment 
  * Hyperarousal & Hypervigilance
  * Identity issues 
  * Impulsivity 
  * Intense Anger


  * Intense and/or unhealthy relationships
  * Interpersonal relational issues
  * Intrapersonal understanding deficit
  * Irritability
  * Obsessive Thoughts & Behaviors 
  * Panic Attacks 
  * Psychosis Symptoms 
  * Recklessness
  * Sensory Integration Issues
  * Self-Isolation 
  * Shame & Guilt 
  * Suicidality 



**Twelve:**

  * Adult C-PTSD
  * Agency, locus of control and/or control issues
  * Agitation 
  * Anxiety 
  * Attention Issues
  * Attachment issues
  * Chronic boredom 
  * Chronic loneliness
  * Compulsive thoughts 
  * Compulsive behaviours 
  * Co-regulation dependency
  * Depression
  * Dissociation
  * Enmeshment & Co-dependency 
  * Emotional reactivity 
  * Emotional dysregulation 
  * Executive Dysfunction 
  * Fear of abandonment 
  * Hyperarousal & Hypervigilance
  * Identity issues 
  * Impulsivity 
  * Insomnia 
  * Intense and/or unhealthy relationships
  * Interpersonal relational issues
  * Panic Attacks 
  * Obsessive behaviours & thoughts
  * Recklessness
  * Risk-Seeking behaviours 
  * Self-Harm
  * Sensory-Integration Issues
  * Shame & Guilt 


  * Suicidality



**Thirteen:**

  * Adult C-PTSD 
  * Agency, locus of control and/or control issues
  * Agitation 
  * Anxiety 
  * Depression
  * Dissociation 
  * Chronic Boredom 
  * Fear of abandonment 
  * Flashbacks 
  * Hyperarousal & Hypervigilance
  * Insomnia 
  * Intense anger 
  * Intense and/or unhealthy relationships
  * Intrapersonal understanding deficit
  * Irritability
  * Jaded feelings 
  * Self-isolation 
  * Risk seeking behaviours 



#  Implicit Memories

Much of what I think can be traced from these experiences outside of some underlying symptomology & the predispositions it left The Doctor with is the experience of implicit memories. 

Implicit memories are memories we don’t fully remember that influence our patterns of behaviour and emotional reactions via our subconsciousness. They are formed through early life experiences, repeated events and complex trauma. This is very influential for The Doctor because the events we are discussing happened before they had their memory wiped to prevent regular recall & visual flashbacks. This mind wipe is highly analogous to dissociative amnesia/repressed memories. 

**As we look through their behaviour we can see possible connections implicit memories:**

  * Anxiety around being controlled and authority. Very understandable in connection to being held down, gaslight, and used. 
  * Deep feelings about justice and injustice needing to be rectified.
  * Never being particularly fond of medical treatment.
  * Parental and/or mentor style relationships replay these unhealthy patterns. Rassilon, K'anpo Rimpoche & Borusa that were all intense to downright abusive. Due to having their mother being abusive (and possibly abandoned or losing their birth parents) The Doctor would likely be used to these patterns of relations. 
  * Patterns of becoming deeply attached to people, pushing others away, and trying to control how this happens. A childhood of abandonment and abuse by loved ones often leaves people stuck in needing this type of emotional connection. 
  * Reactive to feeling like they are being used we see this in the refusal to take normal time lord positions and resist being a soldier. 
  * Re-playing the pattern of running away, getting hurt and then running away again. This is a direct copy of the trauma of leaving their home, ending up on Gallifrey, and then entering an unhealthy behaviour.
  * Under-reactivity to physical pain, a childhood of physical pain changes the body's natural reactions.



#  Relationship With Other Trauma

This foundational developmental trauma would continuously affect The Doctor in the ways mentioned above. Due to the effects of developmental trauma, they experience the new trauma’s more viscerally and they become re-traumatized and worsen all previous symptoms. 

The adult chronic trauma and shock trauma The Doctor experienced all caused symptoms like flashbacks to those events, intrusive thoughts, obsession, specific phobia, and create altered thought patterns based on those specific events. 

Basically, by this point in their life, The Doctor has experienced thousands of years of complex trauma starting with medical child abuse, the abuse within the academy, bullying, the losses of the early doctors, torture, exposure to war, the violence they have done, loss of loved ones, the Time War, Trenzalore, the Time Dial and many more continuous losses of those they love. 

##  Erasure of Later Trauma:

Many people have tried to make everything The Doctor has done, said and felt about these early experiences. As I described in the first two parts, I do believe these events would and have affected The Doctor for their entire life. And I agree that things like wanting to help, fearing authority, disliking being trapped, the need to run away, and certain beliefs around parenting could be based here. But I think some things are innate to people, and aliens, that are not born from trauma like being a huge nerd and their compassion. And on top of that, as I just described, these early traumatic experiences do not erase all of the general emotional experiences The Doctor has had and doesn’t mean the “adult” traumas would not be the cause behind their reactions. 

For example scenes like Twelve describing his nightmares and flashbacks in Zygon Inversion does not have to be about his screams during the events shown in The Timeless Children (which I saw pointed out), it can still be about the Time War, Maybe Trenzalore. We know this is what twelve is talking about and thematically it makes sense, he is also talking about moral injury in what he did during the Time War, not what was done to him. 

The fandom has done this for a while. choose the one big thing and make everything based on that one traumatic event. Previously we said that everything doctors 9-13 experience was only about the Time War, and now we make everything The Doctor ever did about Timeless Child experiments. As someone who works with complex and developmental trauma, it is true that yes the earliest experiences do shape everything but the later traumas and life influence behaviours, thoughts and will have huge emotional weight.

_ This understanding of layered trauma allows us to best understand The Doctor.  _

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!


End file.
